Should the Sat Be Required?

First introduced in the year 1926, for many years now – the SAT, or Scholastic Assessment Test, has been a major part of our high schooler’s education. It is a requirement in order to graduate – and is a chief determining factor in whether or not a student will be accepted into certain colleges. In fact, a student could have straight D’s and C’s, yet if they were to receive a perfect or near perfect score on this particular test – they would be able to apply and be accepted into the most prestigious of schools. I think this is absolutely ludicrous.The SAT test is one tailored to be one of the trickiest you’ve ever taken, one that is actually designed to fool you into misunderstanding every question. Not to mention the stress that overcomes most students as they’re taking this timed test, second guessing every answer and worrying about every little thing until finally the time is up – and they feel like a failure. Itâ€⠄¢s silly to put a student in this atmosphere – where most are not at their best – test them on random subjects, and then allow this score to come before every other score they’ve ever received in their life.Indeed a quote from Einstein comes to mind as I think about it, â€Å"Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a  fish  by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid†. The SAT has been under scrutiny for years now, often accused of being biased in the upper class’ favor. In fact, studies have shown that students from families with an income less than $20,000 a year received an average score of 1,310, while students from families with incomes over $200,000 averaged in at about 1,715 – a difference of 405 points.There was also a large controversy over the ‘oarsman-regatta analogy question’. The purpose of the question poised was â€Å"to find the pair of terms that have the relatio nship most similar to the relationship between â€Å"runner† and â€Å"marathon†. The correct answer was â€Å"oarsman† and â€Å"regatta†. The choice of the correct answer presupposed students' familiarity with crew, a sport popular with the wealthy, and so upon their knowledge of its structure and terminology.Fifty-three percent of white students correctly answered the question, while only 22% of black students also scored correctly. However, according to Murray and Herrnstein, the black-white gap is smaller in culture-loaded questions like this one than in questions that appear to be culturally neutral. Analogy questions have since been replaced by short reading passages†. In response to the controversy, a growing number of colleges have chosen to join the ‘SAT optional movement’, a movement made popular in the late 1980s.Said colleges do not require the SAT for admission. In a 2001 speech to the  American Council on Education,   Richard C. Atkinson, the president of the  University of California, urged dropping the SAT Reasoning Test as a college admissions requirement, â€Å"Anyone involved in education should be concerned about how overemphasis on the SAT is distorting educational priorities and practices, how the test is perceived by many as unfair, and how it can have a devastating impact on the self-esteem and aspirations of young students.There is widespread agreement that overemphasis on the SAT harms American education†. I very much agree with his argument, and many are starting to see his point as well. I am very hopeful that in the growing infamy of the test, it will vanish as a requirement all together, and that the next generation will never have to deal with the problems such a test presents.

What Are the Strengths and Challenges of Teams at Work

What are the strengths and challenges of teams at work? Team work has been the biggest development In management of human resources for organizations In the past few decades (Norman, Cohen and Norman, 1995). It has been implemented in a wide variety of spheres and the growth of the popularity is still ongoing. It is obvious that these changes have not happened without a reason, there is something to team work that is attracting every manager like kids to an ice- cream car. Before I continue, I want to state some things so there would not be any misunderstanding further on the essay.First, I do not want any confusion when it comes to defining a team and a group, because I understand that there is not much of a difference (Ouzo, 1996) between these terms. The only thing that I want to state is that team always has an interdependent nature; they perceive themselves as a whole unit. Second, as the topic is about teams In general, the evaluation Is quite superficial and It will not be val id for every team. The way team performs depends on the size of the team, the management of It and of course the working environment It Is In.So every team has to be evaluated Independently to give an objective report. I will describe aspects that stand out amongst the others and are present for most of the teams. My goal in this essay is to evaluate teams at work environment drawing on theory and research. I am going to point out the strengths of a team-based work from member's point of view and challenges that team members have to face. Eventually, what I am trying to state is that people (managers, leaders etc. Who are leaning towards team work as the best way of getting things done have made this assumption based on feelings they have towards team-work rather than researching hurry and experiments made on the approach to get the bagger picture of what team-work consists from and what are the actual drawbacks. I am basing my work on the paper about ‘romance of teams' (Allen and Yecch, AAA) taking some Ideas from the paper, but putting them Into my own perspective. I am going to start with the most obvious strengths that teams has, because those are the ones that people are most aware of.Followed by additional strengths, that according to researches lies in our sub consciousness. After that I will describe the biggest challenges teams have to face. Strengths A team consists of several people and each one of them has their own skills, characteristics, gender, age and perception of things in general (Britton et al. , 2010). There are several definitions of a team, but this one serves the best for my purposes – ‘A group of people with a full set of complementary skills required to complete a task, Job, or project' (Chicken, 2009).Indeed each one of us Is unique and by coming together and supplementing each other we form a living organism called ‘team'. Knowledge, opinion, experience and personal views can be shared in this living mind', in this way implying additional strengths. Maybe these are not the strengths that people will mention the most when speaking about pros of teams, but they exist and they do form our feelings towards teams. I would like to continue by focusing on strengths of teams that people are unaware of or they are aware of them subconsciously.Every team is a social formation; accordingly it includes interaction with others, whether it is Just a chat that started with â€Å"how are you doing? † or a discussion about the subjective they are trying to achieve or a social evening to bring he team closer together, it does not matter. The thing that matters is that team gives you a wide range of opportunities to satisfy your social needs; it gives you a feeling of belonging (Godard, 2001 a).Alongside, comes the feeling that overtakes you, that gives you the idea that you want to be a part of a team, which is natural, because people are creatures that has been living in groups since the beginn ing of time and social desires has developed naturally and is a part of our lives. The thing is that, not everyone is aware of this phenomenon, so this is where unconscious strengths appear. To continue, I would like to introduce a research made by Diddle and Strobe, 1991.This research states that individuals perceive working in group activities to be more fun and enjoyable than working alone and that time is perceived as passing more quickly when working in a group (Allen and Yecch, Bibb). Moreover, some researches shows that working in a team can increase your mental well-being and state of mind in general (Carter, 2000). Teams provide a benefit like reduction of stress (Godard, 2001 b) which mostly comes from the fact that teams reduces uncertainty about particular situations and verifies member's beliefs and ideas (Hog and Mulling, 1999).As all the facts that are mentioned before comes together, it is only obvious that teams do paint a really nice picture about themselves in our minds. Additionally, the way how people actually perceive themselves in a group is different from the way they do outside of one. Researches have shown that people tend to take less responsibility for failures of the team and in the same time more responsibility for success of the team (Schlesinger, 1975), which is kind of illogical, but in the nature f any human being.It is much easier to assign blame to others in that way preserving your own feeling of competence, rather than admitting that you are the one to blame, and when being in a team you have the opportunity to do that, because who will possibly forbid you, except yourself. The perception of team as a unit working together plays a big role here, because in your mind you do understand that you are not the only one who is in the team, so if the team fails or succeeds then the whole team does that.To add to this idea, people tend to evaluate their own reference higher when working in a team rather than working alone, both, th eir actual expectations and conclusions, of their performance in the team has been recorded to be of a higher value (Phallus et al. , 1993). This all can be very misleading, but as long as we – human beings – will not change our nature and start seeing things as they actually are, these will be some of the most mind impacting benefits towards teamwork.Challenges The point about the diversity of a team and different people coming together that When people with different ideas and different views on life come together and has o work as one and unbreakable unit, arguments between them are inevitable. That is why certain roles have to be assigned and a specific structure formed, so the team would manage to work productively. Size and composition of a team has an influence on individual behavior, on decision making (Kooks-De Bode et al. 2008), if these aspects are not sorted out in a timely manner then one of the biggest strengths of a team can turn into a drawback and then it is Just matter of time when the team will collapse. Another challenge for a team is goal setting, which is a really important aspect when it comes to whether the work is going to be smooth and whether it is going to be without misunderstandings. Goals has to be set at the very beginning and they have to be defined very clearly to everyone in the team, so everyone would really understand what the team is trying to achieve.If this is not done, then there is a possibility that team members start to head in different directions. An equally significant set of challenges comes from too much of dependence on your teams decisions. Researches made by Stanley Amalgam, 1973 shows that when decision has o be made, team members tend to follow the point of view that is presented by others or by most members of the team, that way actually not expressing their own thoughts. Besides that, these researches shows that people tend to follow the leader of a team even if the things that are being don e are against their principles and are morally wrong.Justification to these kinds of decisions comes from the fact that any decision made in a group actually is a group decision and therefore made by several people, accordingly the responsibility is being shared amongst all of the group embers. This results in poor decision-making process, which can further result in serious damage made to the work-group itself or to the possibility of achieving the goal that has been set out. Hence, the challenge for a team is to set certain norms.Norms about how the work has to be led, to what extent members should follow their leader and what are the social, moral, ethical and physical norms that should not be crossed. To sum up the challenges, team work has to be well balanced and well organized; it has to be like a machine that does not work if one of the parts is broken. To do that you have to take in consideration a lot of aspects, starting with leaders role and importance, ending with team m embers moral and physical needs. Everything has to be balanced and managed smartly and efficiently (Allen, 1996).That is the hardest challenge to deal with in team-work and it becomes even harder if the person who is in charge of the team does not know about these elements. Before I draw the conclusion I would like to remind the fact that the Judgments being made in this essay is superficial and regards the general population of people included in teams. Therefore, I am not stating that it is true for every person. To summarize, I have stated the strengths that in my mind form the feeling towards team-work inside a person's mind. I hope that others reading these points will be able to relate to them as well.

Nestlé: Sustaining Growth in Mature Markets Essay

Nestlà © was first founded by Henri Nestle in the 1860s by developing and producing food products for babies who could not adapt mother’s milk. Following the success in baby food products, Henri incorporated with an Anglo-Swiss condensed milk company to develop dairy products, especially for government supply in World War I. High sensitive and quick responding to the demand of consumer, Nestle continued to create and develop new product mix to canned food, beverage, pet care products, to maximize its scope of business in the food segment. Nestle had been incurring high success during its operation in food industry, proved by production many creative product portfolio, double sales and tripled profits, globally brand recognition, offices and factories around the world with the management of previous CEO Helmut Maucher. Maucher successfully promoted Nestle to higher position in the market as a global company and has been operating beyond its original Europe boundary. Nestle is presently one of the largest food company in the world. Nestle has been called the most conglomerate companies ever, with more than 400 plants in 77 countries and growing. Nestle is Switzerland’s largest industrial company and the world’s leading food processor. The food giant ranks as one of the 100 largest companies in the world. Nestlà ©Ã¢â‚¬â„¢s primary products include beverages such as (coffee, chocolate drinks, mineral water, and soft drinks), dairy products, infant formula, culinary products (soups, seasoning, condiments), frozen foods and ice cream, yogurt and chilled desserts, and chocolate. Nestle seems not still happy with what it had obtained. Under leadership of current CEO Peter Brabeck, Nestle is now experiencing a more significant growth and synergies as the top nutrition and Food Company with the strategic management of Brabeck since he took over Nestle in 1997. CEO Brabeck realized the need of Nestle and his first priority was to achieve real internal growth. Strategies were employed to achieve this organic growth and now Nestle is posting CHF $91 billion in sales and CHF $8 billion in profits. Brabeck’s will hand over the company in 2008 and his successor will be facing the task of maintaining the successful momentum. This uncertainty about the future of the company is left to be seen and is the driving factor to the question: Can Nestle sustain its industrial growth in Mature Markets under the new CEO Paul Bulcke or would  the growing competitive pressure shrink its overall growth. To answer this question, an in-depth analysis must be undertaken to understand the external environment that Nestle is operating in by looking at the General, Industry, and Competitor environment and also a microscopic look into Nestle internal environment. The general environment of Nestle looks at the demographic trend. Nestle international operations are in 77 countries with over 400 plus plants and their products are sold on all six continents. The world population is increasing on a daily basis and the geographic distribution of populations is shifting. The world population is also aging quickly and the ethnic mixes in developed countries are changing rapidly. The average household incomes are increasing and Nestle could take advantage of these trends. The demographic environment presents both opportunities and threats for Nestle. The increases in population size and household incomes would help to expand the market in which Nestle operates. However, changes in the geographic distribution of populations, due to technological advances in communications, may cause difficulties for nestle in determining profitable locations for new plants. The economic trend shows that the average market growth of a mature global food industry is 2 percent. Nestle first achieve a four percent internal growth target in 2000 and consistently repeated performance in subsequent years. This growth might be contributed by the economic global trend. The U.S economy decline into recession in 2001 and in order to stimulate the economy, interest rates in United States were cut to near record lows. Many nations around the world are affected by the U.S economy and Nestle Global companies are no exceptions. The economic trend showed in 2005 that there was significant economic growth due to very low interest rates in the United States, resulting in substantial growth in global trade. This growth was slow down by high oil prices. The economic environment presents both threats and opportunities for Nestle. The growth in global trade presents opportunities for Nestle in innovation and renovation of new and old products to offer to its customers. However, the increase in oil prices would cause an increase in the cost of transportation for goods destined for Nestle plants which would threaten Nestle profitability. Operating in all six continents in over 77 countries, the politic al/legal environment presents a threat for Nestle. The differences in the political/legal environment across regions would make it difficult, and  sometimes costly, for Nestle to comply with government regulations. Political risk in some countries remains comparatively high as does the threat of lawsuits from competitors, distributors, and consumers. The socio culture presents opportunities for Nestle. Nestle is often referred to as a role model company that thinks globally but acts locally (p. N 261). Creating a unit that is concerned with adapting global products to local taste and requirements. Nestle would take advantage of the consumer by proving what the consumer wants in that culture. Whether it would be the color, shape, form or taste of the product, Nestle would adapt to those local culture. The technological environment presents opportunities and threats for Nestle. When GLOBE has been introduce in the most relevant markets, all inter-market systems will communicate much better with each other than they do now (p. N 263). Improvements in technology will allow Nestle to perform better analysis of data related to existing and future customer bases. The improvements will also allow Nestlà © to continue to improve its supply chain, which is vital in enabling Nestlà © to offer better prices to its customers. These technological improvements, however, may also be readily available to competitors. Competitors can easily mimic Nestlà ©Ã¢â‚¬â„¢s processes through advances in technology. The global environment presents opportunities for Nestlà ©. The company enjoys being in the leading position in the global food industry. The rapid globalization of business markets presents opportunities to Nestlà © as countries relax regulations that hinder trade and foreign entry into domestic markets. The increased importance of environmentally friendly business operations may also increase costs of operation. However, Nestlà © has established itself as an environmental leader; and the result is shown by the increased in sales and profitability. An industry is a group of firms producing products that are close in substitutes (Hitt, Ireland & Hoskisson, 2009). In reference to Nestlà ©, an analysis of threats to new entrants, the bargaining powers of the suppliers and buyers, the threat to substitute products and rivalry amongst competing firms would be carefully examined. Nestlà © is the oldest and most truly global companies in the food industry (p. N 261). Nestlà © boast over 130 years of industry knowledge in all markets over the world and the awareness to adapt its products to local taste. Acquisitions of Dreyer, Ralston Purina and Jenny Craig made Nestlà © to become the market leader in ice cream, global  leader in pet food and the world largest nutrition and weight management market respectively. The threat of new entrants in Nestlà © industry looks at the barriers of entry. Product differentiation is very high to imitate. The company produces over 127,000 products under six strategic brands: Nestlà ©, Buitoni, Maggie, Nescafe, Nestea and Purina. Nestlà © products are produce to offer characteristics such as quality, taste and safety. Economies of scale is another barrier to entry for Nestle and this is showed through the operations of 400 plants in 77 countries and employed more than 250,000 people. Nestle drive for acquisition was to gain critical mass in terms of market share in businesses in which scale is vital for success (p. N265). Size provides considerable economies of scale in the food industry. Nestlà ©Ã¢â‚¬â„¢s operations are massive and global in scope. Barriers to entry for new entrants are increased by high economies of scale. The switching costs are high because Nestle production is based on innovation and renovation of its well branded product. Nestle works on improving their products especially in mature markets where Nestle generates the bulk of its sale. Continuous upgrading of existing product is an important source of internal growth. Nestle controls its distribution channel and provide assistance to Distribution Company to carry their products. Having access to distribution channels can be a strong entry barrier for new entrants, especially in industries like Nestle. Whenever industry growth is slow and constrained there will be expected retaliation. Nestle was increasingly facing fierce competition as many food producing rivals had achieved significant improvements in their operating efficiency (p. N 262). Nestle weak profitability, whose root causes could be traced to Nestlà ©Ã¢â‚¬â„¢s various acquisition that slowed down the overall growth of the companies and open the doors for competitors to take advantage. Bargaining power of suppliers with the food industry shows that Nestle manufactured over 127,000 products and purchase of raw materials such as coffee and milk. The company utilized the expansion strategy to help with dependency of coffee from its suppliers. The Power of suppliers is low. The supplier groups are less concentrated and not dominated by a few large companies. Bargaining power of the buyers is very high because Nestle is high on quality, taste, and safety. They have modified more than 700 of their products by adding nutritional functionalities for its buyers. Whereby, the buyers are demanding high  quality, taste, and safety products and Nestle is providing it. Nestle was facing fierce competitive pressure and the threat was due to the slow growth of the company that was caused by acquisitions. Although the number of truly global competitors was limited, the most notable being Kraft, Masterfoods, and Unilever, Nestle was also facing strong competition at the national and regional level (p. N 262). The return on shares decrease from 44% in 97 to 15% in 2001 but increase tremendously in 2005, whereby its rival, Hersey have seen a constant shareholders return over the ten years. Note in particular was the 88% in 2001 to 306% in 2005. In fact, all competitors yield positive shareholders return between the years of 2001 to 2005, possible due to the low interest rate that created a global increase in trade. The competitive environment in the external environment is fierce on the local and regional level but limited on the global level. Globally, Nestle competitors are Kraft, Masterfoods and Unilever. In 1997, the company was ranked eight among the world’s top 12 packaged food companies in terms of returns on capital. Its net margin was only half of its major rival Unilever (p. N 262). Today, Nestle employs over 250,000 employees, manufactures approximately 127,000 products in 77 countries under six major brands: Nestle, Maggie, Nescafe, Purina, Buitoni, and Nescafe. Nestle basically doubled its competitor industry growth and is far ahead of its closest competitor. The internal organization of Nestle focuses on the internal strengths and weaknesses of the organization. Between 1982 and 1997, under CEO Maucher, the company showed a great deal of strength and also major weaknesses, but CEO Brabeck, during 1997 and 2005, utilized effective strategy to move the company forward. The borrowing capacity of the company was evident in 2005, where Nestle generated total sales of CHF $91 billion and net income of CHF $8 billion and was the leading food manufacturing industry. Nestle also have the ability to generate internal funds and from 1997 to 2005, Nestle continued its expansion through a combination of organic growth and acquisitions. Once the feasibility study is conclusive, Nestle will focus on selecting the format best suited to the particular market and adapting that format to local needs. Nestle physical resource includes over 400 plants in 77 countries, on the six continent all over the world and employed more than 250,000 people of which 3,500 are scientist in the research and development section. The technological  resources utilized by Nestle were the GLOBE program that is designed to improve operational efficiency by integrating the company’s businesses on a global scale. The objectives are to establish best practices in business processes, to align data standard, and to install common information system. GLOBE will allow all inter market systems to communicate better with each other. Intangible resources such as knowledge and trust were seen in Nestle. The company knowledge was displayed in its 140 years of profound knowledge of markets all over the world, and the ability to adapt its product to local taste. Nestle trust its workers and the organization structure is a decentralized one. Whenever there was an acquisition, Nestle would promote managers from the acquired company. This promotion displayed trust building measures hoping that those managers would be effective and efficient with their new roles and responsibilities. Nestle also utilized innovation resources for its success. Nestle is considered the innovation leader in the global food and nutrition sector (p. N 264). The company created a research and development section and invested CHF $1.5 billion for renovation and innovation of old and new products. They hired 3,500 scientists with the quest to this achieve internal growth. Business level strategy of Nestle was to seek ways in which the company can grow internally because the external growth strategy has been reached. The company was ranked first in all the product segments in which it operated (p. N 261). However, with all this acquisition and external growth, the company’s market growth was only 2 percent. The CEO Brabeck goal was to achieve real internal growth. The company had many challenges and weaknesses. The most important of these challenges when the company generated more than 70 percent of its sales in mature markets with a limited potential for organic growth (p. N 262). The company was also challenge with slow market growth due to the amount of acquisitions over the years and had portfolio that included several low margin product segments that negatively affected profitability. This led to company being ranks eight among the top twelve packaged food companies in terms of return on capital. Brabeck business strategy was focus specifically on Nestle organic growth. Organic growth in mature markets could only be reached by strengthening Nestlà ©Ã¢â‚¬â„¢s innovative capacity. His strategy was to force the businesses to become more efficient by cutting back on their investment budget (p. N 262). The first task was to achieve  Nestlà ©Ã¢â‚¬â„¢s operational efficiency. Nestle launched a manufacturing efficiency programs MH97, Target 2004+, and Operation excellence 2007. Other strategic initiatives were FitNes, GLOBE, and the reduction of the marketing expenditure by exploiting synergies brand. These efficiency strategies saved Nestle over CHF $12 billion and the savings were invested into internal growth. Organic Growth was evident when Nestle was transformed from a food company into a food, nutrition, health, and wellness company. This was accomplished by creating units such as Corporate Wellness and Nestle Nutrition units. The company strengthens its innovation by focusing on the research and development and investing heavily in innovation and renovation and organizational changes to improve research and development’s connection with market Nestle operates. They created the Product Technology Centers, Local Application Centers and Clusters. Nestle also used external growth as a platform for organic growth by the acquisition of Dreyer, Ralston Purina and Jenny Craig. All these strategies yielded Nestle in 2005 CHF $91 billion in Sales, $8 billion in profits and 4 percent market growth. In conclusion, the new CEO Paul Bulcke of Nestle is taking over an organization that is already a global giant and the strategies that his predecessor was able to establish in the span of ten years are fostered for continuity. The new CEO Paul Bulcke would be able to maintain and at some point, increase sales and profits for the next five years. Although the competition is fierce, Nestle economies of scales, financial capabilities, 140 years of knowledge and experience, external and now internal growth would make it difficult for the competition to shrink Nestle industry growth. With the sizeable investment of CHF $1.5 billion in research and development, the new CEO would have a unit that is created for new innovations and also to renovate the old products. The new CEO Paul Bulcke could build on the abundance of strengths Nestle acquire over the years, overcome the few weaknesses the global giant has, take advantage of the tremendous opportunities for nestle, and avoid the external threats that could cause the company to lose market share. CASE RELATED QUESTIONS Preparing to hand over the CEO position to Mr. Paul Bulcke on April 10, 2008, you decide to summarize the lessons and successes of your tenure in that position. Your first step will be to outline the environmental forces that  you faced in 1997 (Nestlà ©Ã¢â‚¬â„¢s internal strengths and weaknesses and the external opportunities and threats facing the company at that time). You have a meeting scheduled later this month to give Bulcke direction on taking the company forward. You’ve outlined the following agenda for the meeting. Characteristics of the Current Competitive Landscape: Globalization, Technology, Knowledge, Strategic Flexibility, Quality, Profit Pool Vision and Mission Stakeholders Acquisition Strategy Organizational Structure Strategic Leadership Strategic Entrepreneurship Your assignment is to give a full assessment of the agenda items to prepare Bulcke for leading the company in the years ahead keeping in mind that Nestle needs to maintain its strong growth momentum in the developing and emerging world. Since I took over the Nestle Organization from 1997 to 2007, many environmental forces were created during the past decade. The company went through environment opportunities and threats from outside and also established internal strengths and in process was exposed to a few weaknesses. Nestle had tremendous opportunities because of the numerous acquisitions by my previous predecessor. The company had the potential for organic growth, further expansion to other countries, and increase in shareholders capital. During that time, Nestle was threaten by fierce competition locally, regionally and a little on the global scene. This threat was due to the numerous acquisitions that slowed the industry growth and gave these companies the opportunities to compete. However, during the decade, numerous strengths were created whereby Nestle implemented manufacturing efficiency programs by cutting down on wild spending and channel that savings into innovation and renovation. That strategy grew the organization from a 2 percent growth to 4 percent. The company also boasts of 140 years of experience and knowledge, operating in all six continents, well liquidated, and has the ability to create what the consumer wants  through its research and development unit. The limited weaknesses were evident such as the inability to identify that the productions of canned food, tomato, oil, dry pasta that would be slow in growth. However those items were divested in the past decade. Characteristics of the current competitive landscape of Nestle look at the fierce competitive environment on the local and regional level but limited on the global level. Globally, Nestle competitors are Kraft, Masterfoods and Unilever. In 1997, the company was ranked eight among the world’s top 12 packaged food companies in terms of returns on capital. Its net margin was only half of its major rival Unilever (p. N 262). Nestle employs over 250,000 employees, manufactures approximately 127,000 products in 77 countries under six major brands: Nestle, Maggie, Nescafe, Purina, Buitoni, and Nescafe. The profit is on the rise and would make strategic flexibility for the new CEO. Nestle basically doubled its competitor industry growth and is far ahead of its closest competitor. Nestle vision states that â€Å"each day we strive to make our products tastier and healthier choices that help consumers care for themselves and their families† and its mission is to â€Å"positively influence the social environment in which we operate as responsible corporate citizens, with due regard for those environmental standards and societal aspirations which improve quality of life.† Stakeholders are an important part of Nestle organization and the bottom line is to ensure that the shareholders are satisfied. Shareholders were not satisfied with CEO Maucher due to the fact that shareholders were accustomed to getting 17 percent annually when the organization was growing through acquisition but when the limit of the external growth had been reached, shareholders return decreased. This decrease in shareholders return led to the firing of CEO Maucher. During the decade, Nestle acquisition strategy was used as a platform for organic growth. The concept behind acquisition was to gain a critical mass in terms of market share in businesses in which scale is vital for success. External growth was used to gain expect knowledge for further expansion into new product segments. The Nestle Organizational structure is one that is decentralized, and changes were made to improve the research and development’s connection with the markets in which Nestle operates. The organizational measures were the creation of Product Technology Centers, Local Application Centers, and Clusters Within the Nestle organization there  must be strategic leadership to move the company forward and also strategic entrepreneurship. This leadership must be able to identify specific areas where Nestle can grow, maintain, and sustain its global dominance. References Raisch, S., Ferlic, Flora. (2006). Nestle: Sustaining Growth in Mature Markets. INSEAD. Hitt, Ireland, Hoskisson. (2009). Strategic Management: Competitiveness and Globalization (Concepts and Cases). (8th ed.) Mason, OH Hitt, M. H., Ireland, R. D., & Hoskisson, R. E. (2009). Strategic Management: Competitiveness and Globalization. (8th ed.). South-Western Cengage Learning 5191 Natorp Boulevard Mason, OH 45040 USA. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.Nestlà © .com

Mass human rights violations Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3250 words

Mass human rights violations - Essay Example The concept of human rights and its application has seen tremendous expansion at the end of the 20th century1. The Universal Declaration of Human rights is an existing phenomenon in the global forefront for almost 50 years2. Majority of the people in almost all the countries in the world conceive that human rights are associated with the attributes of optimal protection and respect. Thinking in a most elementary dimension, human right can be regarded as the right of each individual for staying in the surroundings where he or she finds every opportunity in developing, living, working, relaxing, finding out various things for themselves and also be with other people, marry people of any ethnicities, rear their children and so on3. International laws have been formulated as well as implemented on an all round and global basis so that the human rights do not get violated 4and that all the individuals are treated on an unbiased yardstick of judgment in accordance with the international la w of human rights made by the International Courts. Despite that, it has been found that even after formulation of the human rights convention there has been a wide scale violation of human rights in an around many nations of the world5. It has also been argued that individual state policies of human right violation in various countries overshadow the application of international law and thus the weaknesses of international law in providing fruitful remedies is questioned to quite a robust extent6. In this paper, the discussion will be centered on the explanation of human rights laws provided by the international courts and they will be discussed in accordance with the case studies from different countries and the analysis will be directed towards the notion that whether the international law offer effective remedy in areas where the government of a state chooses in committing mass human rights violation within their own borders. Now, the subsequent section will discuss the notion o f human rights and provision of human rights within the international legal dimension. II. Human Rights 1. Basic facts In a nutshell, the definition of human rights can be stated as â€Å"the rights of human beings to live according to their nature and with other human beings†7. In the second half of the twentieth century various international standards were formulated and they became accepted on a wide basis over various nations of the world. 2. Human rights in international law During 1993, the United Nations World conference confirmed their commitment in association with established norms of human rights8. There have been various initiatives undertaken at international, regional as well as national levels for the protection of human rights. Individuals possess the rights to bring various human rights complaints before the regional courts for addressing their issues. The victims may have their cases heard before international governmental organizations but the national cour ts are in the current scenario are applying regional as well as international human rights standards. But unfortunately, it can be stated that practices of the states throughout the second half of the 20th century have shown many several evidences of violation of human rights on a wide scale basis. The violations which have occurred has taken a massive scale and they have been brutal in nature with infringement on â€Å"the right of life, physical and mental integrity and individual freedom† 9 In 1967, the United Nations classified the violations as gross human right violations of human rights. The phenomenon of gross violation of human rights is not a recent phenomenon. Since the period of 1945, estimations state that more people have perished as a consequence of gross human violation. Empirical evidences also reveal that the phenomenon of g

Alexander the Great Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Alexander the Great - Research Paper Example By the time Alexander ascended to the throne of Macedonia, the main cities of Greece were already brought under the Macedonian rule and so Alexander came up with a strong and experienced military force in the land. At first, he established as the general of the Greece and then he ventured to expand the empire to the other side of the world. He started his expansion of the empire by attacking Asia Minor in 334 B.C. The ten years of expanding the empire, up to his death, marked as the craftsmanship of this Macedonian king. The whole Persia under Darius III came to be under Alexander the Great. The attack of Alexander in India (336 B.C.) witnessed the greatness of the emperor by giving the land to the earlier king. The near mutiny of his troops made him back to Macedon. The death of Alexander in 323 B.C. in Babylon witnessed the end of Macedonian dreams to conquer the remaining countries of the ancient world. BBC says, â€Å"Alexander led his army a further 11,000 miles, founding over 70 cities and creating an empire that stretched across three continents and covered around two million square miles† (BBC). All the places he conquered were put together in an ‘international network of trade and commerce’. The language and culture of the Greek spread across the conquered places and there was the interchange of the culture- the Greek and the conquered countries. This research gives a small description of the conquests of Alexander the great and tries to analyze how Alexander’s conquests affected the countries with Hellenistic attributes. So the paper takes the thesis statement, Alexander’s the great conquests affected the countries in many ways. Alexander’s Conquests It was after ascending into the throne of Macedon in 336 B.C., Alexander III took part with the desire of his father in expanding the territory of the country. His father, Philip II, had already made the Greek countries under Macedon through military and diplomatic measures. So he had already paved the way for his son to ride on. The new king Alexander at the age of 20 started his attempts to conquer the other countries. It was amazing for researchers to believe that Alexander could take control the major parts of the ancient world. His empire coved the countries like Egypt, Syria, Palestine, Armenia, Persia, Afghanistan and India of the ancient world. All those places that came on the way from Macedonia to India became under the control of Alexander the great. (See appendix 1) William J. Duiker and Jackson J. Spielvogol had given the brief account of Alexander’s invasion in their book, The Essential World History. It is stated in the book that, in the year 334 B.C. his army, consisting 37,000 men entered Asia Minor and soon the entire western half of the country came under Alexander. The attack of Alexander suddenly alarmed the Persian ruler, Darius III and he wanted to stop the movement of the Greek army. The battle of Issus was a fe arsome one between these two armies and finally the Greek became victorious. This success made him

Listening Log Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Listening Log - Essay Example Title: I’m Gonna Be Album: Sunshine on Leith Artist: The Proclaimers Year of Release: 1988 Rock Style: Pop Rock or Celtic Rock Musical Characteristics: Proving that pop music can be defined by a broad spectrum of sounds and experiences, this piece of music has the sound of an Scottish drinking song, the lyrics of a sentimental ballad, and a hard driving beat that pushes the listener to embrace the hook in such a way that it will either pleasantly or irritatingly hang on long after the song has ended. Finding fame in the film Benny & Joon starring Johnny Depp, the song picked up fame in the United States, even while experiencing continuing fame in its originating country, Scotland, as it is often heard and sung during football games. Comparison The two pieces are similar, first, in that they both have an unusual sound that was picked up due to a specific hook that caught the attention of the listening public. These songs represent the kind of music that, once heard, do not easi ly leave the mind of the listener. The construction of the music in both works is simple and straight forward, the music developed through a limited instrumentation and a heavy emphasis on the beat of the drum.

Gender and Work - Masculine or Feminine Work Essay

Gender and Work - Masculine or Feminine Work - Essay Example Any activity which led to the seeking of subsistence means was covered in the heading of â€Å"work† while all other activities of â€Å"reproduction† and assuring the sustenance of life cycle (nursing) were reduced to â€Å"limitation†. Unfortunately, the later was what women were supposed to do by default and therefore men took the charge of the more proactive role of sustenance of family like tracking and killing animals for food. This natural evolution of role created â€Å"myths of work† for men and women. The simple myth which evolved was that what men do is â€Å"work† while what women does back at home does not fall in the definitions of work or we can say that the distinction was laid down as masculine or feminine work. With the advancement on the course of history the women’s influence in different fields has changed and now women are also out in search of sustenance means for their family, thus blurring the primitive masculine and feminine myth of work. However, the age-old psyche was not that easy to overcome as the women came in the field with the â€Å"the same old myth† attached to her. Resultantly, either woman was given â€Å"inferior jobs† presupposing that the jobs pertaining to men could not be done by them befittingly. Although, the increase of women’s role in the domain of men â€Å"work† and success in that continued the attack on the masculine and feminine myth of work but initiated another dimension in it. More work, with an assumption that women are not able to go through such rigours of intensive work, entered the scene. This ability to work for long hours was equated with success and a general perception was created among people that working long hours is important for career advancement.  This development made both men and women so involved in their jobs and working places that they grade their workplace as â€Å"a place for (their) soul to recreate itself, a place for self-improvement, and a place for spiritual training . . . [the worker] looks for the reason of his being or identity in hard work’ (Schwenkter, 1995).